NcodiN, a deep-tech startup developing optical interposer technology with integrated nanolasers, has secured €16 million (~$18.5M) in a seed funding round. The company will use the funds to push the technology from R&D to industrial scale. Specifically, funds will be used to pursue product development, bring in new talent to support commercialization of the technology in a CMOS pilot line on 300-mm wafers, and to build out the company’s supply chain and customer partnerships. A demonstrator for NcodiN’s NConnect photonic interposer technology. Courtesy of NcodiN. NcodiN is developing a generation of photonic interposers designed to overcome the “copper wall” — the performance and energy limits of electrical interconnects that constrain AI systems. At the core of the technology, called NConnect, is what the company claims to be the world’s smallest laser. This, it says, enables dense integration on silicon and unprecedented scalability without disrupting existing processor architectures. According to the company, the platform allows chipmakers to pack supercomputer-level power into a single processor, paving the way for faster, more efficient AI hardware. The fundraising will accelerate industrialization of the platform, including an industrial pilot to demonstrate compatibility with advanced packaging techniques. With this round, NcodiN will also establish a presence in Silicon Valley, expand its R&D capacity, and scale its team in preparation for large-scale manufacturing partnerships. NcodiN's network of strategic advisors has been expanded to include Eli Yablonovitch, Gus Yeung, and Peter de Dobbelaere, among others. Yablonovitch is a renowned physicist, pioneer of photonic crystals, and cofounder of Luxtera, Ethertronics, Luminescent, and Alta Devices. Yablonovitch introduced the idea that strained semiconductor lasers could have superior performance, a concept now used by almost all semiconductors. He is regarded as the father of the photonic bandgap concept. Yeung previously served as general manager at ARM, where he spent almost 20 years helping the company grow and establishing ARM as the reference design platform for today’s CPUs. He also served as CTO at Intel Foundry Services, driving the organizational and technological transformation required to serve world-class external customers. De Dobbelaere is a seasoned silicon photonics engineer, who played a central role in Luxtera’s rise.
